With the release of Back to Karkand on the PC, comes it’s true level of beauty. Playing the levels, you really get a sense of Battlefield 2 in a new light. For those of you still waiting to download or to those still considering buying Back to Karkand, here is a batch of screenshots from Wake Island, Gulf of Oman, Sharqi Peninsula and Strike at Karkand to please your appetite.

That’s right, Back to Karkand has just launched for the PC Platform and Xbox360. The madness is beginning and already the karkand servers are starting to fill up. This is another exciting stepping stone for the battlefield community and be sure to come back tomorrow night for the unveiling of our very own surprise! Through the course of the day we will have our teamspeak server open to the public (IP: Battlefieldo.com) and maybe even a few special guests! In the meantime, head over to battlelog and get pumping in Karkand’s 4 new BF3 maps! Don’t forget to register for our forums.

Here’s the final trailer in the Back to Karkand series!

The major announcement will be mid-week. We’re launching our new Website, in conjunction we are going to be giving away Back To Karkand Codes to registered members, sign up now to qualify. We’ll be picking people registered on the site for code give-a-ways.

Very soon… =D

We’re just one day away from the first downloadable content to Battlefield 3 on PC and Xbox 360. PlayStation 3 users have been playing it since last week (LUCKY). There has been an explosion of reviews, and overviews on the Back To Karkand Expansion. The official Battlefield Twitter just posted that tomorrow between 10-11am CET they are performing maintenance on Xbox and PC platforms.

We’ve asked our own Luetin (PS3) to provide us with as much sneak peek footage and overview to Back to Karkand as possible, be sure to watch his video here:

B2k Overview:

Assignments Overview:

F-35B Basic Overview:

Xbox Update:

For all you Xbox Players who have patiently been waiting for a patch, good news is you’ll be getting it tomorrow, here are some of the patch notes that the PS3 received last week, we expect the Xbox 360 notes to be mostly identical.

BATTLEFIELD 3 PLAYSTATION 3 CLIENT UPDATE NOV 30TH 

General fixes 

• Significant improvements to the Squad Join interface, full details in this earlier blog post
• Removed FIND ME A SQUAD option
• Allow players to join empty Squads alone, thus having 1/4 Squad members
• Change order of options to LEAVE SQUAD, INV A FRIEND, SWITCH TEAM
• Disable Privacy flag when 1 man Squad
• Reset Privacy flag from Private to Public when Squad drops to 1 player
• All occupied Squads will now show up colored blue on the Squad selection screen
• Players who choose not to join Squads will also show up as Blue in the “Not in a Squad” line
• Squads that are currently empty will display as white — if you wish to join an empty Squad, you can choose the first one marked with white text
• Added round duration and ticket summary at end of round screen
• Fixed sound for when climbing ladders
• Fixed and issue with some weapons’ sounds in first person view
• Fixed a swim sound loop error
• You should no longer be able to damage a friendly vehicle when sitting in an open position
• Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it
• Spawn protection now should work in Conquest so you no longer should spawn too close to enemies
• You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM and SQDM
• Fix for missing input restriction during intro movie, causing players to potentially fall and die while watching movie if moving controller (or having a controller with a bad stick zone)
• Combat areas on Kharg Island in Rush mode tweaked in order to disallow defenders to access the carrier ship after first base is taken and being able to enter the AA gun
• Fixed a problem with revived players not being able to get suppressed
• Fixed a problem with the camera when being revived in co-op
• Spotting VO now plays when spotting from MAV/EOD bot
• Fixed several issues regarding the kill card, including showing wrong weapons used for the kill
• Fixed that sometimes you would be stuck on a black screen when kicked from server
• Fixed so when a team captures two flags at the same time, the UI does not show wrong owner of the flag
• Fixed a problem where the capture progress bar was shown as friendly when the enemy was capturing
• Fixed a problem with the bipod deploy sound
• Fixed a problem that you could be spawned in with no weapons after being killed while using the EOD bot
• Fixed problems with health bars not displaying health properly when using EOD bots
• Fixed a problem with flickering name tags
• Fixed a problem where you could damage friendly helicopters
• Fixed a problem where you could get stuck in the co-op menu when attempting to join the session twice
• You should now be able to spot explosives
• You should no longer spawn in home base if your selected spawn point is disabled while waiting to spawn (e.g. if your teammate dies right before you are about to spawn)
• Damage from bullets will now continue to cause damage even after the firing user is dead
• Fixed several client crashes
• Fixed a problem where players could get stuck in the join queue
• Fixed the repair icon on the minimap
• Fixed a problem with changing camera on certain vehicles
• Fixed a problem with the grenade indicator when in guided missile mode
• Fixed a problem where the machine could hard lock when joining a public coop game
• Fixed a problem where the headset attached icon would not show up in the UI
• Fixed a problem with the falling antenna on Caspian Border. It should now more instantly kill anyone in its falling path
• Fixed a problem where tank turrets would turn too slow
• Fixed a bug on co-op mission “Exfiltration” where you could end up outside the vehicle and not being able to enter it again, thus blocking the mission
• Fixed a problem where a user can become invulnerable after being resurrected
• Fixed a problem with the M60 reload sound
• Fixed a hang in terrain streaming, causing the user to get stuck on black screen under special circumstances in single player
• Fixed a problem where the enemy would not be able to get a road kill on a user that was using the SOFLAM
• Fixed soldiers disappearing in the mortar kill cam
• Fix for Type88 and MG36 zoom in animation offset when in supported shooting mode (using bipods)

Balance changes 

• Increased the damage of helicopter miniguns, AA guns, and jet cannons against infantry
• Increased the damage of helicopter miniguns against jeeps
• Reduced the physics impact of AA guns and jet cannons so players under attack from these weapons no longer should lose control
• Increased the damage of the 44 Magnum slightly
• Increased the range and minimum damage of the .357 Round from the MP412 Rex
• Increased the range of all .45cal and 9mm weapons
• Slightly increased the range of the P90 and MP7 and PDW-R
• Slightly increased the range of the 5.56mm PDW-R and decreased the minimum damage at long range
• Slightly increased the minimum range of the Mk11, SVD, and M39 EMR 7.62mm rifles
• Decreased the maximum damage and maximum range of the G3 and SCAR-H 7.62mm weapons
• Reduced the damage from FIM-92 and SA-18 IGLA missiles against aircraft
• Increased the damage and range of the 40mm BUCK rounds
• Reduced the damage .50cal weapons do against helicopters
• Updated T90 canister shell tweaks to match Abrams canister shells

Last night the Video Game Awards 2011 took place with Battlefield 3 being Nominated for Best PC Game of the Year and Best Shooter of the year. Unfortunately it didn’t win either of the prizes but one game can’t be the victor of everything! If you want to check out the list of nominees and winner, see this page. During the VGA 2011, EA announced it’s newest title, Command and Conquer: Generals 2 which will be making use of DICE’s Frostbite 2 engine. It’s great to see the C&C series coming back with the glory of Frostbite 2. Here is a video teaser of the new C&C:

For the past week, Playstation 3 players have had a chance to g et the Back to Karkand DLC one week early. Now this coming this Tuesday (December 13th, 2011), PC / Xbox360 players will get their hands on. Already reviews have started coming in and it looks like the BF2 revival actually happened. The mainstream gaming sites seem quite pleased as does the PS3 community. Here are a few articles courtesy of the Official Battlefield Blog

IGN: “Back to Karkand Revitalizes Familiar Roads”
Kotaku: “Should You Buy Battlefield 3’s Back to Karkand? Yes.”
Now Gamer review: 9/10
Gamingtruth review: 9.75/10

In this video we take a basic overview at the new fighter jet on Battlefield 3 the F-35B as well as some hints on how to learn to fly and control the aircraft. This Jet allows vertical take off and landing as well as the ability to hover to improve engagement with ground enemies.

DICE Developer, Alan “Demize99″ Kertz has made a post on battlelog lining Future Balance updates. While none of these are guarenteed to make their way into future updates, it give you an idea what things they are looking at. If there are things you would like to see changed, be sure to head over to the Battlelog forum thread. Here is the complete list:

It’s important to note:
• This list is provided as a way for the Community to give us feedback on potential Balance changes to the game.
• This list is specifically focused on Balance changes. Feature requests and bug fixes are purposefully absent from this list.
• There is no guarantee that any of these Balance changes will make it into a future update at all, nor is this list a guarantee that there will be future updates

•  Slightly increased the AEK971 recoil.
• Slightly increased the ASVAL recoil.
• Added Extended Mags to the ASVAL.
• Slightly increased the recoil on the M249.
• Reduced the recoil of the SKS rifle.
• Fixed aimed firing max accuracy on the Pecheneg to be consistent with other LMGs.
• Slightly reduced the recoil of the F2000 and restored it to the previous base accuracy.
• Semiautomatic and automatic shotguns firing FRAG rounds now do slightly less splash damage.
• Increased the damage of the G3, M60, and M240 at close range.
• Claymores can now detonate from vehicles and can be used to disable jeeps or kill the passengers in light jeeps. Claymores will not do any damage to heavy vehicles.
• Reduced the spot times on C4 and Claymore projectiles from 30 to 15 sec.
• The Radio Beacon, Mortar, Mav, EOD bot, T-UGS, and SOFLAM should now be much easier to deploy.
• C4 will no longer be detonatable after a player respawns, if the player is revived within 5 seconds he can still detonate his C4.
• The player may now have a maximum number of mines which will persist after the player’s death. Deploying more than the maximum of 6 mines will remove a previous mine from the world.

• Claymores now also persist through death, the player can have 2 claymores planted.
• 9x39mm rounds no longer benefit from the Sniper headshot bonus.
• Increased the damage of the 9x39mm rounds.
• Fixed the AKS74u damage at max range, it was incorrectly higher than other carbines.
• Increased the damage of the .357 and .44 magnum rounds at max range.
• All semiautomatic and bolt weapons, including all shotgun slugs, now have their maximum damage out to 15m.
• Semiautomatic sniper rifles, Assault Rifles, LMGs, and shotgun slugs now have more consistent damage over long range.
• Tweaked IRNV to be more consistent across all levels.
• Fixed a rendering issue with IRNV view when taking damage.
• Tweaked the IRNV zoom times and scope visible areas to be the same across all weapons (some were faster than others).
• Fixed the QBU-88 sniper and the L96 IRNV scopes to use the proper aiming reticule.
• The spread for Flechette rounds has been reduced slightly on all shotguns.
• The spread for buckshot has been reduced on the M1014, DAO-12, and S12k. These weapons have an accuracy advantage over the USAS12 but are not as accurate as the 870.
• Semiautomatic weapons will no longer “jam” if the player presses fire faster than the weapon is capable of shooting. Some semi automatic weapons have had their rates of fire adjusted to fit this change.

• Slightly reduced the effective blast radius of the RPG, SMAW, and 40mm grenade projectiles against infantry.
• Reduced the total number of RPG and SMAW missiles carried from 5 to 4.
• Tank rounds will now instantly destroy Jets, Attack Helicopters, and Scout Helicopters.
• Fixed a problem when locking on to two nearby targets, the locking should no longer jump rapidly between multiple targets.
• Significantly increased the damage of the Javelin and Air to Ground missiles against laser designated targets.
• Javelin missiles fired without laser targeting now do more damage to the side and rear of MBTs.
• Slightly reduced the locking time of all weapons vs Laser Designated targets.
• Increased the locking distance for Jets when locking on laser designated targets.
• Slightly reduced the repair speed of the repair tool.
• Increased the damage the MBT’s primary weapon does to other main battle tanks.
• AA Missiles should no longer kill the pilot instead of the vehicle.
  
• Reduced the damage AA missiles do to jets.
• Stinger and IGLA missiles now do 50% damage to Jets, Attack Helicopters, and Scout Helicopters.
• Slightly reduced the damage of Jet cannons.
  
• Increased RPG and SMAW damage against aircraft.
• Guided Rockets will now only track ground targets, as originally intended.
• Reduced the direct damage done by helicopter gunners vs armor.
• Helicopter guns should now suppress correctly.
• Improved the accuracy of the Mi28 gun to match the AH1 gun.
• Increased the direct hit damage of the APFSDS rounds for the IFVs.
• Miniguns and Helicopter Gunners now more quickly destroy parked cars.
• Increased the power of explosions from cars and other explosive static objects.
• Dying from the explosion of a car or other explosive static object should now correctly credit the player who caused the explosion.
• Adjusted the F35′s Center of Mass and Lift Engine for more stable, level flight.
• Updated the F35 weapon systems to be consistent with the other air craft.
• Changed the Kornets to TOW launchers on Wake Island and moved the spawn position of the AAV to a more level position.
• Fixed several bugs with air vehicles colliding with objects at high speeds and taking no damage.
• Players will no longer receive suicides or team kills if they crash their vehicle (dying is punishment enough).
• You can now spot with the EODbot.
  
• Increased the spawn protection time from 1sec to 2sec. The protection will still be immediately canceled as soon as the player moves or shoots.
• Spawn protection will no longer be canceled by the player looking around.
• Slightly increased the speed at which a player can shoot again after sprinting.
• Fixed some situations that would unintentionally make a player unrevivable.
• Reduced the black screen fade in time on spawn.

In this video I give my extended overview of the Battlefield 3 Back to Karkand Expansion released this week. We look at each map and its Conquest and Rush game modes. The Karkand release provides some new and exciting gameplay and brings back some classic Battlefield maps to the BF3 arena.

So far… two Easter Eggs have been found in the newest Battlefield 3 DLC “Back To Karkand”. The first is a “Thanks Plate” with a message from DICE, the Battlefield Franchise Developer, which is thanking all the veterans of the Battlefield Franchise. The second is a toy Dinosaur also hidden in the new map Back to Karkand Map “Wake Island”. As many battlefield franchise fans know, the Dino has long been a tease from the development about the possibility of a “Jurassic Mode” which you could battle with or around dinosaurs.

Thanks Plate

Toy Dino

Tomas Danko, VO Producer @ DICE Audio has tweeted a few promising features and announcements about the Commo Rose 2.0 update which we have learned is coming very soon. Features include: + requests/”shouts” from Commo Rose should be heard by all teammates not only local players, and request ammo/medic command. Screenshots of the Twitter conversation below, Enjoy!

Yesterday a huge update came to PC players along with a brand new update to Battlelog. Further improvements have been made to the system and go to show just how dedicated DICE is at taking your feedback for how to improve battlefield 3.  Here is the complete list of improvements, courtesy of Battlelog

Yesterday a huge update came to PC players along with a brand new update to Battlelog. Further improvements have been made to the system and go to show just how dedicated DICE is at taking your feedback for how to improve battlefield 3.  Here is the complete list of improvements, courtesy of Battlelog

The Back to Karkand DLC is released today on PS3, we look at the new assignments aspect, and what each assignment will unlock for you. Each unlock has a specific set of challenges for you in order to access them.

To kick off the launch of Back to Karkand DLC on the PS3 today plus a new PC Client patch, DICE have released another awesome trailer, this time showing off wake island.

Happy B’day Stadler!

Today is a special day for Battlefieldo… Our site was founded nearly a year ago by Erik “Stadler” Zuuring. It all started here on Erik’s Tumbler. Erik has grown Battlefieldo into the largest Battlefield 3 Online Community in just over 4 months of being alive. He steers us staff members in the right direction on development, and has more drive and focus on providing the community with their needs than I have ever seen in any video game I have ever played. Erik is the ultimate community manager, and we honestly wouldn’t have such a great, world leading community site and community without him. Erik has recently also been added as a Battlelog Moderator, and also serves the community on the Battlelog forums. We have some pretty big things on the horizon for our site, and our community following, and I know we all rest easy at night knowing Stadler’s at the helm. Happy Birthday bro, and thank you so much for the sweat, blood, and tears you put into the site, and the community.

On a less serious note: Be sure to check out Stadler’s “Confession” in our staff confession post. =)

Over the past few months, we have worked at expanding our network into Battlefield 3, CSGO and now SWTOR. Currently we are looking for a Keen python developer to join our team to help us create a  new website application for these gaming websites. As a developer you should feel comfortable working in Python. We have a solid development team already established and will be expanding as the road continues. Currently we are working in a Python based SDK, called Planet framework.

Python Developer Requirements

- Must be Mature (Preferably over 17 Years of Age)
- Excellent coding skills in Python
- Experience in web development
- Strong passion for gaming
- Ability to work in a team environment
- Turning concepts / ideas into functionality

If you feel suited for this position, please send the following information to recruitment [at] Battlefieldo.com

Name:
Nickname:
Age:
Location/Timezone:
Reason for Applying:
What can you bring to BFO: 

Just this weekend Newegg Wanfest announced the opening of signups for an online Battlefield 3 tournament that will run from Monday, December 19th, to Sunday, January 8th. Like all Wanfest tournaments, it is free to enter with cash prizes being awarded to the top three teams left standing: $500 for third place, $750 for second place, and a solid $1,250 for the first place team. The format for the tournament is currently listed as 5v5 Squad Rush with each match being determined by best two of three maps. Teams earn points by blowing up M-COM sites with the map winner being determined by who has the most points after playing both attacker and defender.

The tournament tweaks some of the default Squad Rush settings in order to achieve a better competitive balance. The rules note that Mortars are currently disallowed; this is in order to prevent teams from spamming the M-COM site on defense or while protecting it on attacker. Also, each team is limited to only one Assault player at a time. Players can pick Assault kits up off the ground if they come by them but only one player can be spawned in as the Assault “skin” at any one time.

Newegg has a history of running PC tournaments for the Battlefield series with their most recent event being the Summer 2010 Bad Company 2 Squad Rush tournament that had more than 100 teams competing for similar cash prizes. It’s always great to see tournaments for the Battlefield series, but it’s even better when there is money on the line! With this tournament by Newegg and the Alienware Arena event, Battlefield 3 eSports is starting off with a bang. What are you waiting for? Get over and get your team signed up to get in on the action.

This is David “jackelpdw” Dennis, and I’m one of the newest faces here at Battlefieldo. As a long-time competitive Battlefield player,  I hope to provide coverage and analysis of the Battlefield 3 competitive scene that will appeal to both the competitors themselves and casual fans of the series. Additionally, for those guys and gals who were always interested in competing but never gave it a shot, I’ll shed light on the who, what, where, when, and why of playing competitively to make it easier for you to get in on the action. I’m stoked to be here, and if you ever have any questions about the competitive BF3 community please feel free to drop me a line on the forums and I’ll be happy to get back to you.

This week PS3 Players got their large Client Patch, now next week on December 6th, 2011 PC Players will receive a very large Battlefield 3 update. It will be 2GB in size and contain Back to Karkand plus a huge list of changes. All players will be prompted to update around 8:00AM GMT and servers will be updated to R11. The patch comes out just a week before the PC release of Back to Karkand, the First Battlefield 3 DLC. Here is the list of Patch Notes courtesy of DICE’s Mikael Kalms.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a problem with spawn timer now showing blue border on startup and lost spawn point
• Fixed a problem where player who joined queuing on End of round got spawn screen stuck on screen, but unable to do anything with it untill next round loaded
• Fixed a problem where camera would change to 3rd person on killcam when killcam was turned off in server settings
• Fixed stat references on several dogtags
• Fixed for surveillance ribbon not counting TUGS
• Fixed a missing combat area lines on the minimap for Grand Bazaar conquest small
• Moved a tank spawn in US base on Caspian Border so it would not be destroyed by a falling tree
• Fixed a problem where placing C4 with the russians soldier was playing US faction VO
• Fixed a problem where TV guided missiles could be shot into its own helicopter and destroy it
• Fixed a problem when attempting to fire lock on weapons without a target
• Tweaked the chat, it should now be a bit easier to read
• Fixed several vehicles that did not properly shoot rockets and guns towards their predictive sights
• Fixed the G17 Supressed Laser not working properly
• Added alternate HUD colors to help colorblinds
• Added a network interpolation setting. This allows users with good bandwidth reduce latency, but might increase some stuttering. The user can find what works best for his connection by tweaking the slider.
• Increased the Spawn protection radius on TDM
• Fixed a problem with smoke on land vehicles, Missiles should now miss more often
• Fixed a problem where users could end up with IRNV scope in any vehicle
• Fixed a problem where player dies if vaulting over a ledge and into water while sprinting
• Fixed several crashes and increased general stability
• Fixed a problem where the user was unable to revive two players that have the bodies one over the other
• Fixed so you can assign an axis and use as a digital input. This makes it possible for the player (on pc) to assign one of the sticks on a gameped to be used for throttle/brake.
• Fixed a problem with the Kill camera acting up when suiciding from parachute
• Fixed air radar was showing to much. now lasertagged, heatsignature above threshold, enemy missiles and capture points are only visible on air radar
• Fixed a problem where the game would enter a technical hang if the user pressed pause menu and tilde at the same time
• Fixed a problem where you could get green flashes on screen
• You can now reassign cycle weapons
• Fixed so the weapon zooms automatically after bipod deploy is gone when using zoom toggle
• Fixed a problem where the parachute would stay stuck in air if the owner was killed

Balance Tweaks

• Fixed several weapons so they are properly suppressed and hide the player on the minimap when fired.
• Tweaked Tactical Light so it is not as blinding over longer ranges.
• Tweaked the IRNV scope so it is limited to usage only at close range.
• Reduced heat masking effectiveness of Spec Ops Camo.
• Fixed a bug where Ammo spec would give additional 40mm grenades instead of Frag spec.
• Increased the number of additional 40mm grenades from Frag spec.
• Fixed so AT mines only live for 20 seconds after a player dies to prevent infinite mines. (We want to make a different fix in the future, it’s in JIRA).
• Increased the Time to Live on sniper caliber rounds to allow extreme distance shots.
• Fixed several weapon descriptions, calibers, and fire rates. The weapons themselves have not changed.
• Fixed so the M9 and MP443 pistol can be equipped by the opposing faction when it is unlocked at 100 kills.
• Fixed Laser Guided Missiles missing their targets if the target is moving too fast.
• Reduced the effectiveness of Stealth on Air Vehicles.
• Reduced the effectiveness of Beam Scanning for Jets.
• Reduced the damage done to Armored Vehicles and Infantry from AA guns.
• Increased the damage RPGs and Tank shells do to AA vehicles.
• Slightly decreased the accuracy for all weapons on fully automatic, burst fire is now preferable at mid to long range.
• Increased the effective accuracy of long bursts for LMGs when using a bipod.
• Slightly increased the range of the 44magnum bullets.
• Increased the close range damage of 4.6x30mm and 5.7x28mm bullets.
• Increased the reload time of the Mortar from 3.5sec to 4.8sec and increased the time it takes before a shell hits the ground.
• Reduced the aimed accuracy bonus given by a Suppressor for the MP7, P90, PP2000, PP-19, and UMP45.
• Increased the range and FOV for designating targets with the SOFLAM and vehicle Laser Designators.
• Decreased the effectiveness of 12g FRAG ammo when equipped on semi-automatic and automatic shotguns.
• Slightly Increased the power of Fighter Jet Cannons against all vehicle targets, especially Helicopters.
• Decreased the power of Miniguns against Jets and Helicopters.
• Increased the power of Stingers against Jets.
• Flares reload times for Jets and Helicopter Gunners have been increased.
• Tweaked the AN94 so its burst fire better conveys the real world advantage offered by this weapon.
• Added Single Shot to the AN94 as an available fire mode.
• Slightly increased the recoil on the M416 and removed the Burst Fire mode (this weapon incorrectly had burst fire, which was not authentic).
• Tweaked the spawns for TDM on Kharg Island, Grand Bazaar, Caspian Border, Seine Crossing, Operation Firestorm, Damavand Peak and Noshahar Canals
• Moved a tank spawn in US base on Caspian Border so it would not be destroyed by a falling tree
• Tweaked the Gas station Capture area on Conquest on Caspian Border
• Tweaked the max vehicle height on Noshahar Canals

  via Battlelog 

In this episode we look at the squad specializations what they do how best to use them, and how to avoid not giving your squad and team the full benefit of your specialization perks. These upgrades can make a huge difference to how your gameplay turns out so make sure always to use them to their full potential and change them to suit different games and environments.

BATTLEFIELD 3 TAKES THE FIGHT BACK TO KARKAND

First Expansion Pack for EA’s Award-Winning Shooter Coming December 6th to PlayStation 3, December 13th to Xbox 360 and PC

DICE, an Electronic Arts Inc. studio (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that Battlefield 3™: Back to Karkand, the first digital expansion pack for the critically acclaimed Battlefield 3, will be available December 6th for download on the PlayStation®Network and December 13th on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace and the PC. Building on the biggest launch in EA history, Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand is a full-feature digital expansion pack giving gamers more of the explosive multiplayer that Joystiq.com called “mesmerizing,” and gameplay that has won over 60 industry awards and continues to delight gamers across the globe in what Seth Schiesel of The New York Times declares, “the most visually realistic shooter on the market.”

Utilizing the power of Frostbite™ 2, the Back to Karkand expansion pack remasters four of the most popular Battlefield multiplayer maps in the franchise’s history all with enhanced levels of destruction, including Strike at Karkand, Wake Island, Gulf of Oman and Sharqi Peninsula. In addition to these four new maps , Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand marks the return of the classic Conquest Assault mode from Battlefield 2™. A twist on the beloved Conquest mode, Conquest Assault starts one team in command of all control points on the map while the opposing team must assault and take the flags over in order to stop their tickets from bleeding down to zero. Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand also features three new vehicles, ten newweapons, five new dog tags, five new achievements/trophies and an added layer of persistence where players complete assignments to unlock items and earn rewards.

“Free for those that pre-ordered or purchased the Limited Edition of Battlefield 3, Back to Karkand is another way for us to say thanks to our fans and show our continued support for the game,” said Patrick Soderlund, Executive Vice President of the EA Games Label. “The launch of Battlefield 3 was only the beginning as we vow to keep the game alive with additional content and gameplay improvements in the months ahead. We’re excited to recreate and share some new Battlefield moments on these beloved maps that only Battlefield games can provide.”

Available exclusively for one week on the PlayStation Network, Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand will be available December 6th at no extra charge* or for £11.99. The expansion pack will be available on December 13th for £11.99 on PC at Origin.com or for 1200 MS points on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Battlefield fans can purchase merchandise online at the all-new DICE store at www.store.dice.se. For the latest news on Battlefield please visit http://www.facebook.com/battlefield, follow us on Twitter® at www.twitter.com/battlefield or sign up for the official Battlefield newsletter at www.battlefield.com.

Series Introduction:

We all know just how hilarious and entertaining the gaming community can be with the endless supply of original videos and parodies. So we’re going to be looking out for the funniest Battlefield 3 Videos to share with you in a new series “ROFLMAO” For each episode we’ll have a poll on our forums for you to vote on which you feel like was the most hilarious video. We’ll then feature all the videos that have won from every episode in this season and host a “Best Of: ROFLMAO Season 1″ finale. Looking forward to showcasing the best original content the BF3 Community has to offer.

Season 1 – Episode 1 — 12/1/11

Video 1:

Battlefield 3: Spaceship Easter Egg (Battlefield 3 Machinima)

Video 2:

The “N” Word

Video 3:

Battlefield 3 Trolling dem Noobs

Ever wondered what that buzzing noise above you in BF3 was? No your speakers aren’t broken its an MAV. In our latest know your unlocks video we take a look at the role of the MAV and when it can be a benefit to you and your team. When used properly you can still gain a respectable score at the end of the round whilst providing an invaluable support to your team. We follow up with an extra commentary on the rest of the MAV round. Follow the link at the end of this video to check it out.

Recently there was a post on the EAUK Forums about a FXAA Injector that improves the visuals in Battlefield 3 without taking up any extra resources. Thanks to a tweet to a Evenbalance Developer, it appears as though using this fix may get you kicked or even banned from Punkbuster enabled servers. Like most Anti-Cheat software, your files are usually verified by a server to ensure you are not using modified files. Even if the game may look better, we advise at this point not to use it until their is more of an official word on this issue. We’ll keep you posted on this issue as more gets released.

Baked up a special cake for this Scallywag, yarrr!

It’s the season of Birthday’s here at Battlefieldo and today it’s our very own, JRB’s birthday! He is one of our developers / Administrators on the BFO Staff and is responsible for some amazing contributions to our site . Before BF3′s release he put together the Battlefieldo Widget and he is continuing to brew up some awesomeness behinds the scenes. JRB basically, is da man. Since today is his Birthday, we encourage you to join his Pirate Fan club on Battlelog and spend the day YARRING!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JRB!

DICE has just published a thread on the Battlelog forums as place where you can post your feedback on future balance changes to the game. This is some amazing stuff and it’s awesome to see DICE so proactively engaged in the community to take the time to collect feedback in this nature. Post up your future balance requests and ideas, and please remember to keep it as productive and informative as possible.

Src: http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/forum/threadview/2832654489491100463/

Back To Karkand is around the corner…

And we’re all very excited about some of the amazing features DICE is dropping into our lap just 2 months after the game release like a Christmas present under the tree that you cannot wait to open. (<3 u DICE) We’ve started a community poll to figure out just what features you are most excited about. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and stay tuned to all the details as they develop!

Check out the Official Gameplay Footage  and the Gulf of Oman trailer as well.

If you remember the Sir Community from Battlefield 2 days, you’ll be pleased to know they are back at it and here comes a little preview of their upcoming stunt videos. Great to see and we personally can’t wait to see what stunts these tricksters come up with.  If you are interested in learning more about the Sir Community or getting involved with their crew, Visit their site for more information. In the meantime check out this awesome video!

Last week, PC Players recieved the first major Patch release for Battlefield 3. Looks like Playstation 3 users are next and is it ever a huge update. Tons of fixes, weapon changes, UI adjustments, etc. This Playstation 3 patch is to be deployed on November 30th at 09:00 CET / 3:00AM EST and will take a total time of 3 HOURS. Here is the complete list of changes to be coming in this new update.

BATTLEFIELD 3 PLAYSTATION 3 CLIENT UPDATE NOV 30TH 

General fixes 

• Significant improvements to the Squad Join interface, full details in this earlier blog post
• Removed FIND ME A SQUAD option
• Allow players to join empty Squads alone, thus having 1/4 Squad members
• Change order of options to LEAVE SQUAD, INV A FRIEND, SWITCH TEAM
• Disable Privacy flag when 1 man Squad
• Reset Privacy flag from Private to Public when Squad drops to 1 player
• All occupied Squads will now show up colored blue on the Squad selection screen
• Players who choose not to join Squads will also show up as Blue in the “Not in a Squad” line
• Squads that are currently empty will display as white — if you wish to join an empty Squad, you can choose the first one marked with white text
• Added round duration and ticket summary at end of round screen
• Fixed sound for when climbing ladders
• Fixed and issue with some weapons’ sounds in first person view
• Fixed a swim sound loop error
• You should no longer be able to damage a friendly vehicle when sitting in an open position
• Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it
• Spawn protection now should work in Conquest so you no longer should spawn too close to enemies
• You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM and SQDM
• Fix for missing input restriction during intro movie, causing players to potentially fall and die while watching movie if moving controller (or having a controller with a bad stick zone)
• Combat areas on Kharg Island in Rush mode tweaked in order to disallow defenders to access the carrier ship after first base is taken and being able to enter the AA gun
• Fixed a problem with revived players not being able to get suppressed
• Fixed a problem with the camera when being revived in co-op
• Spotting VO now plays when spotting from MAV/EOD bot
• Fixed several issues regarding the kill card, including showing wrong weapons used for the kill
• Fixed that sometimes you would be stuck on a black screen when kicked from server
• Fixed so when a team captures two flags at the same time, the UI does not show wrong owner of the flag
• Fixed a problem where the capture progress bar was shown as friendly when the enemy was capturing
• Fixed a problem with the bipod deploy sound
• Fixed a problem that you could be spawned in with no weapons after being killed while using the EOD bot
• Fixed problems with health bars not displaying health properly when using EOD bots
• Fixed a problem with flickering name tags
• Fixed a problem where you could damage friendly helicopters
• Fixed a problem where you could get stuck in the co-op menu when attempting to join the session twice
• You should now be able to spot explosives
• You should no longer spawn in home base if your selected spawn point is disabled while waiting to spawn (e.g. if your teammate dies right before you are about to spawn)
• Damage from bullets will now continue to cause damage even after the firing user is dead
• Fixed several client crashes
• Fixed a problem where players could get stuck in the join queue
• Fixed the repair icon on the minimap
• Fixed a problem with changing camera on certain vehicles
• Fixed a problem with the grenade indicator when in guided missile mode
• Fixed a problem where the machine could hard lock when joining a public coop game
• Fixed a problem where the headset attached icon would not show up in the UI
• Fixed a problem with the falling antenna on Caspian Border. It should now more instantly kill anyone in its falling path
• Fixed a problem where tank turrets would turn too slow
• Fixed a bug on co-op mission “Exfiltration” where you could end up outside the vehicle and not being able to enter it again, thus blocking the mission
• Fixed a problem where a user can become invulnerable after being resurrected
• Fixed a problem with the M60 reload sound
• Fixed a hang in terrain streaming, causing the user to get stuck on black screen under special circumstances in single player
• Fixed a problem where the enemy would not be able to get a road kill on a user that was using the SOFLAM
• Fixed soldiers disappearing in the mortar kill cam
• Fix for Type88 and MG36 zoom in animation offset when in supported shooting mode (using bipods)

Balance changes 

• Increased the damage of helicopter miniguns, AA guns, and jet cannons against infantry
• Increased the damage of helicopter miniguns against jeeps
• Reduced the physics impact of AA guns and jet cannons so players under attack from these weapons no longer should lose control
• Increased the damage of the 44 Magnum slightly
• Increased the range and minimum damage of the .357 Round from the MP412 Rex
• Increased the range of all .45cal and 9mm weapons
• Slightly increased the range of the P90 and MP7 and PDW-R
• Slightly increased the range of the 5.56mm PDW-R and decreased the minimum damage at long range
• Slightly increased the minimum range of the Mk11, SVD, and M39 EMR 7.62mm rifles
• Decreased the maximum damage and maximum range of the G3 and SCAR-H 7.62mm weapons
• Reduced the damage from FIM-92 and SA-18 IGLA missiles against aircraft
• Increased the damage and range of the 40mm BUCK rounds
• Reduced the damage .50cal weapons do against helicopters
• Updated T90 canister shell tweaks to match Abrams canister shells

via Battlelog 

According to the Asia Playstation Store, it looks as though Back to Karkand will be released on the Playstation 3 on December 7th, 2011. We know that the new DLC will be coming a week earlier to the Playstation 3, so that means that we can expect to see the PC / Xbox360 version on December 14th, 2011. With only one more week until PS3 players and 2 weeks till the rest of us get our hands on this DLC, it’s great to see it is just around the corner. In other Back to Karkand news, a video showing off gameplay of Wake Island has been released.

UPDATE: To our knowledge, the US/EU PSN Store updates on Tuesday, which is December 6th. Meaning it would likely be released on that day.

Thanks to the EAUK Forums for the heads up

- Wake Island is a “U”-shaped Island. (lol)
- US Reinforcements spawn on a Carrier.
- 2 new US Spawnzones at both Shores.
- 3 Flags! (Airfield, Southbeach, Northbeach)
- No WW2 Bunkers! Complete “modern” re-design!

Smoke is a massively underused tool in Battlefield 3, in this video we look at how it can be a benefit to you and to your team in a variety of situations. Smoke can allow you to break through potentially difficult situations and is one of the most versatile pieces of kit for you to use in Battlefield.

With the latest PC update for Battlefield 3 we now support Stereoscopic 3D on supported hardware. Stereoscopic 3D adds another dimension to your gameplay and lets you experience the battlefield with added depth perception. See below for how to enable this new feature.

We have added support for Stereoscopic 3D in the Frostbite 2 engine by rendering each frame twice (once for each eye). This gives us full control of how our game looks in 3D, and lets us create an even more visceral experience for the player. Rendering each frame twice is quite performance heavy, though, so take that into consideration if you want to play with Stereoscopic 3D enabled. To improve performance, you may want to reduce graphics quality or resolution compared to what you normally would use when playing without Stereoscopic 3D. Using a multi GPU setup will also improve performance, as each GPU can share the work load.

NVIDIA 3D Vision technology
NVIDIA 3D Vision is a combination of 3D Vision wireless glasses and 3D Vision Ready monitors. You can look for the 3D Vision Ready icon on your monitor, or check this page to find out if your monitor and GeForce GPU support Stereoscopic 3D.

Enable 3D Vision by going to the NVIDIA control panel, and in the Stereoscopic 3D tab, make sure “Enable stereoscopic 3D” is set. Battlefield 3 will use the standard 3D Vision settings and hotkeys. Adjust the amount of depth effect using the scroll wheel on the 3D Vision IR emitter or by using the keyboard shortcuts. The default shortcuts are CTRL-F4 to increase the depth, and CTRL-F3 to decrease the depth. You can customize these shortcuts in the Stereoscopic 3D control panel.

AMD HD3D
See this page to find out if your monitor and Radeon GPU support Stereoscopic 3D.

Enable HD3D by starting Battlefield 3 and go into the options menu. In the video options tab, change STEREOSCOPIC 3D to ON. Adjust the depth using the slider in the menu.

via Battlefield Blog

Our very own Grizzle is working on a Engineer montage video featuring some of the best Battlefield 3 Engineer gameplay footage. Think you have what it takes to show off your engineer skills? You can submit your video clips to Grizzle and if it’s l33t enough, expect to see it in the upcoming release of “The Mechanics”. Submit links to your video via email to grizzlebf [at] yahoo.com. In the meantime, check out the trailer for it!

Looking to play competitively with Battlefield 3? Well here is a new PC tournament starting up from Alienware arena in participation with CEVO, a group dedicated to organizing tournaments. The tournament will be starting this thursday, December 1st. If you’re interested in playing, be sure to register as soon as you can! Go here to get more information about the Tournament. Be advised that this is only open to residents of Canada, USA and Mexico

Join today and battle your way to the top of the ladder. The top 32 teams at the end of the Winter Season will be eligible to join the Invitational Tournament. Play begins December 1, register today!

The Alienware Arena Battlegrounds programs allows teams to play as much as they want around their own schedule. Join and play with your friends in 8v8 Conquest competition for your chance at $2,000 in prizes in the Invitational Tournament.

Registration:Open Now!
Play Begins: December 1, 2011
Winter Season Ends: January 29, 2012
Invitational Tournament (Top 32 Teams): February 4 – February 15, 2012
Invitational Tournament Prizes: $2,000

Become a part of Alienware Arena’s Battlefield 3 community and stay tuned for the launch of the game’s page! Featuring video and instructional guides, it will change the way you play the game.

Today is one of the biggest sale days in North America or other wise known as Black Friday. It’s your perfect chance to get some Battlefield swag at great prices or get your friend a copy of battlefield 3 for 50%.  EA’s Origin store is offering all Battlefield 3 copies at 50%.  While many sales go on until Monday, some are only for today so be sure to jump on it. Also, our friends over at the DICE store are offering 15% from today until Monday.  They have excellent BF3 merch, especially the Dogtag series recently introduced. All you have to do is enter the Promo code THANKSGIVING when you check out at the DICE STORE. Happy thanksgiving to our US Readers and have a great weekend!

This week, the Battlefield 3 PC Community got their hands on the first major patch, with the console version just around the corner. There has been quite a few comments from the community in terms of when we might see Battlerecorder. On reddit, EA’s BF3 Community Manager Ian “Crash7800″ Tornay gives a little clue what we might expect to see in upcoming patches.  At this point we have no real clue as to when this patch will be released, but with Back to Karkand around the corner and there being a few glitches with the recent patch, perhaps it is closer then we perceive. Here is the quote from Crash7800 giving a few details.

So, here’s what I’m seeing.

We’ve made progress that most of you appreciate and the fixes we are making are welcome. That being said, there are still some issues that you’ve been asking about that weren’t included in this patch. These include, but are not limited to:

• In-game VOIP
• Various nerfs including Taclight
• changes to chat window (size, positioning)
• Additional changes to squad interface, including the ability to make squads
• Beep beeps (Which will be implemented, just not in this patch)
• Squad and in-game interface changes (mostly revolving around the proposed fan-designed interface)
• EDIT: TV Missles – definitely known (can’t believe i left it off)
• EDIT: Spectator/Battlerecorder - Another very popular request. (I can’t believe I left it off! I’d like this too)

Please know that these are definitely on our radar as top issues for community requests.

Some of the issues addressed in this patch were brought to our attention by you guys, including the “negative acceleration” issue. We’re committed to continuing to act on your feedback!

Not all of the issues we’ve solved are as impactful or sexy as some of you were hoping for, but I hope everyone appreciates how hard the DICE team has been working.

What are some things that you’d like to see in upcoming patches? Where is the priority in terms of what DICE should be their energy towards implementing? Discuss in our comments.

Tonight around 11:00 PM PST / 2:00AM EST, the first major Battlefield 3 patch will be deployed on Origin with the console patch following behind it this week. Just less then a month after release, there are quite a few fixes with this patch update from performance to weapon changes. Here is the complete list of patch notes that you can expect to see in the upcoming update.

Client-Side Changes

Visuals, Stability and Performance Fixes:

• General performance and loading time improvements
• “Black Screen” fix for an issue occurring on some PC Configurations
• Stereo and Rendering Support for Nvidia and AMD Graphics Cards
• Adjusted the “stuttering” encountered on some PC configurations.
• Fixed several Crashes when joining MP and Co-Op sessions
• Fixed multiple problems when using multiple monitors (Eyefinity / Surround).
• Fixed visual corruption issues on certain Nvidia Cards
• Improved loading times for certain textures
• Added console command “GameTime.MaxVariableFps” to limit max FPS
• Added console command “UI.DrawEnable” to hide UI for screenshots / videos

Balance and Gameplay Adjustments (PC)

• Fixed a problem with high speed mouse movement
• Added back some missing Growlers on Kharg Island Conquest Large
• Added back EOR sound for SQDM and TDM
• You should no longer be able to damage a friendly vehicle when sitting in an open position
• Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it(note the affect this will have on Hardcore mode!)
• Spawn protection now should work in Conquest. You should no longer spawn on points too close to enemies
• You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM and SQDM
• Combat areas on Kharg Rush tweaked in order to disallow defenders to access the carrier ship after 1st base is taken and being able to enter the AA gun
• Fixed a problem with revived players not suffering suppression
• Fixed a problem with the camera when being revived in COOP
• Added joystick deadzone setting
• Fixed sound for when climbing ladders
• Fixed an issue with some weapon sounds in first person
• Fixed a swim sound loop error
• Increased the damage of Helicopter Miniguns, AA guns, and Jet Cannons against infantry
• Increased the damage of Helicopter Miniguns against jeeps.
• Reduced the physics impact of AA guns and Jet Cannons, players under attack from these weapons should no longer lose control.
• Increased the damage of the 44 Magnum slightly.
• Increased the range and minimum damage of the .357 Round from the MP412 Rex.
• Increased the range of all .45cal and 9mm weapons.
• Slightly increased the range of the P90 and MP7 and PDW-R.
• Slightly increased the range of the 5.56mm PDW-R and decreased the minimum damage at long range.
• Slightly increased the minimum range of the Mk11, SVD, and M39 EMR 7.62mm rifles.
• Decreased the maximum damage and maximum range of the G3 and SCAR-H 7.62mm weapons.
• Reduced the damage from FIM-92 and SA-18 IGLA missiles against aircraft.
• Increased the damage and range of the 40mm BUCK rounds.
• Reduced the damage .50cal weapons do against Helicopters.
• Updated T90 canister shell tweaks to match Abrams canister shells
UI Changes (PC)
• Added round duration and ticket summary at EOR
• Advanced squad polish – should be more intuitive
• Significant changes to the Join Squad functionality (see below)
• Fixed a problem regarding keybindings while playing
• You should now get a better error message when being disconnected via Battlelog

Server Update Highlights

• EOD Bot exploit fix
• Several crash fixes
• Anti-stat padding measures taken, disallowing ranked servers to run obscure settings
• Improved team kill kick configuration
• Support for unranked servers. Unranked servers do not report players’ scores to Battlelog, but server administrators can freely control all settings

Share your profile and stats with new Battlelog functionality

• Ability to share your Profile and Stats pages to Facebook, Google+, and Twitter
• User Profile and Stats pages on Battlelog can now be accessed without being signed in to Battlelog if you know a user’s URL
• Single sign on from Battlelog to Origin. If you’re not logged in to Origin and join a game server, Battlelog will automatically sign you in to Origin in the background and join the game server

Quick notes on Squad changes in the Nov 22 update

• Removed FIND ME A SQUAD option
• Allow players to join empty Squads alone, thus having 1/4 squad members
• Change order of options to LEAVE SQUAD, INV A FRIEND, SWITCH TEAM
• Disable Privacy flag when 1 man squad
• Reset Privacy flag from Private to Public when squad drops to 1 player
• All occupied Squads will now show up colored blue on the Squad Selection screen
• Players who choose not to join squads will also show up as Blue in the “Not in a Squad” line
• Squads that are currently empty will display as white — if you wish to join an empty Squad, you can choose the first one marked with white text

A detailed look at Squad refinements

A detailed look at Squad refinements

Today’s PC client patch features numerous tweaks to Squad functionality and is part of our ongoing efforts to make it easier to play with friends and Platoon mates. These changes will also be implemented for consoles when we release the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 updates shortly. Stay tuned for the exact date of the console updates.

First, we need to look at how joining with Squads and Platoons affects the balance of teams. Initially, servers are commanded to equal out each side, so joining with friends can impact that balance while joining with Platoons further hinders this. As a result we have made some adjustments to the in-game Squad management screen.

For PC, you are now able to highlight the various Squads and select which one you wish to join by selecting a Squad and then clicking the Join Squad button. Please note that the Squad Privacy option still allows 2 man Squads which, during 64 player sessions, can lead to players with no squad position –- the number of people with no Squads will be shown at the bottom of the Squad selection list.

via Battlelog 

The full text is as follows:

“The DICE team are hard at work supporting Battlefield 3. To date, we have implemented several server updates to improve stability and performance. Next week we are publishing a significant Battlefield 3 client update for the PC. Console patches take a bit longer due to the certification requirements for console content, but it will follow shortly after the PC update.

“So what’s in the PC patch? You’ll see improved polish, stability, weapons balancing, squad control functionality, user interface enhancements, and several feature enhancements that address feedback the community has provided to date  – plus we’re removing the so called “negative mouse acceleration” that some of you have experienced.

“Regarding cheating and boosting, we continue to analyze data to identify and hold accountable (ban, wipe stats) players that cheat or boost. We’ve received questions about what to do when faced with unsportsmanlike conduct in Battlefield 3 – the best course of action is to click the warning sign next to their profile name in Battlelog, or head to the EA Help Desk and report your issue. These leads will enable us to follow up on the report.”

You can see the post here.

From the blog post:

“We are also adding a new layer of persistence in the form of ten Assignments. These will be tracked no matter if you play a base game map or expansion pack map, and add a new way to unlock things in the game.

“Let’s take a closer look at the “Let it Rain” Assignment. To complete this assignment, players must score 20 kills with Light Machine Guns and two mortar kills. The game will keep track of how far along you have come to fulfill it. When you have met the requirements, you will unlock a new Back to Karkand weapon (with a matching set of dog tags) to use on any map including the base game. You will also unlock the new Creeping Death Assignment.

“As with all of the Assignments introduced in Back to Karkand, you can keep building towards these no matter if you play on regular maps or maps from the new expansion pack itself. Your regular persistence will also be intact and keep building up no matter what map you play – Back to Karkand is in this way completely integrated into the base game, including the ability to have a map rotation mixing base game maps with Back to Karkand maps.”

Check out the original post here.

Another amazing game play video has surfaced showing some more footage of Strike at Karkand, to be featured in the first DLC for Battlefield 3, Back to Karkand. The expansion pack is just around the corner and it just gets the drool going to see more of the action of new maps we are about to experience!

Warning: each of these is several megabytes in size!  To download, click the thumbnail, then right click and hit “view image” to see the full resolution version.  Without further ado:

Pretty cool, huh?  You can read the original article here (in German) and they also have a download link for a ZIP of all 9 panoramas.

We all experience that one day a year whether we hate it or love it. For the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure of working on and off with our Technical Director Europhoric. If you call yourself a veteran to the Battlefield Community and remember a site called TotalBF2, then you’ll recognize him as his previous nickname “GameWizard”. He was 15 years old at the time and behind the creation of that site.  I had the pleasure of joining on board with him in those early stages and I can safely say it was what got me introduced into the back end of running a Battlefield Community Site. It was just under a year ago that I reconnected with Europhoric as Battlefieldo was starting up.

Well, today is Europhoric’s Birthday and we’re proud to have him on board our team as a Technical Director. He makes sure our site runs smooth on the back end and is usually found making tweaks, creating new features and pioneering the development roadmap.  Outside of the daily work, you can always count on him to show you something hilarious to cheer you up.  For years he has committed  time and effort into the community all for the love of Battlefield.

Go ahead and add this dude on your battlelog

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Almost a month after release of Battlefield 3, it’s great to see the back end becoming much more stable.  In a recent article published by insidegamingdaily, it looks like EA / DICE are responding to those of us who experienced problems at launch.

“Though the first day of launch was somewhat volatile, we are happy to report that server support stabilized to roughly 98.9% through our launch weekend and has not dropped since. That said, we will not rest until we’re at 100% . We are committed to supporting the game as a software service, and listening to consumer feedback every day,” Soderlund said. “We are making daily updates and improvements to ensure an optimal online experience for all. Regardless of the cause or platform, our team at DICE and our Online teams are working together, standing by to identify the issues and addressing them as they arise. Every big multiplayer game experiences some instability at launch. The good news is, we’re listening, responding and improving the service every day.”  - Executive Vice President Patrick Soderlund

With already a few server patches being deployed and another one expected in the next week, DICE is hard at work to make sure Battlefield 3 is stable 100% of the time.  With a major update to Battlelog already released and Back to Karkand expansion just around the corner, Battlefield 3′s development road is kicking full speed. Thanks to ACID343211 for the headsup.

“In two words: thank you,” Soderlund said. “We are overwhelmed by the positive response we’ve received from gamers around the world. The DICE team has lived and breathed Battlefield 3 for the last few years and it’s an exciting time for us to finally share something we are so passionate about with millions of gamers. The best reward for us is the amazing feedback we’ve seen from our fans. They are helping us make the game better every single day.”

via Insidegamingdaily 

Ever wanted to be apart of a Battlefield 3 Community Site? Well here is your chance! We’re currently looking for 2 dedicated News Poster to join our  team here at Battlefieldo. This opening will be for posting updates to our community via our homepage blog system. You’ll work closely with our team of administrators in creating content for the homepage be it the latest news from Battlefield 3, Opinion pieces or sharing a Community made video you found.

News Poster Requirements

- Must be Mature (Preferably over 17 Years of Age)
- Excellent writing skills in English
- Knowledge of WordPress CMS System
- Comfortable in searching Battlefield 3 related News Feeds
- Ability to work in a team environment
- Broad ability in writing articles to short blog posts.

If you feel suited for this position, please send the following information along with 1 Sample of your writing ability to stadler [at] Battlefieldo.com

Name:
Nickname:
Age:
Location/Timezone:
Reason for Applying:
What can you bring to BFO: 

Are you new to Battlefield? or just need a brush up on the basics? In our latest ‘Know Your Unlocks’ series we look at the 2 most basic kits, Medic and Support. We see how two of the most default items benefit the team, and look at how the often misunderstood minimap icons relate to your team in Battlefield 3. Watch this video to see how supporting your team is at the heart of BF3!

The Battlefieldo Team is happy to announce the addition of our sister site: STARWARSO.com. STARWARSO will be kicking off as a blog originally and will then evolve into what is to hopefully be the world’s largest online Star Wars community. We have so much planned and are so excited to expand our resources and experience over to a new site and a new game. We have so many things on the horizon for not only Battlefieldo, but now also her sister STARWARSO. We’re expanding our team, and if you’re interested in becoming a part of STARWARSO contact us HERE with your resume and online community or technical experience.

Stay in touch with our Development and be apart of the founding membership!

You can follow us on Twitter: @STARWARSO

“Like” us on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/starwarso

Last week, we hosted a Battlefield 3 Community Week with giveaways courtesy of Razer. We held three contests letting users compete in video making, knife fighting and screenshot/artwork creation. As we now are at the end of the event, it’s time to announce the winners! We want to give a huge thanks to Razer, i3D,net, P-Stats.com, zh1nt0, crash7800 and our fans for your support during this event. We’re back to the drawing boards and will be doing something epic for the launch of Back to Karkand next month. Anyway, it’s time to see who the winners are!

Contest #1 – Video  Competition

First off, our winner for the video contest submitted this. For this awesome Mortar video, he’s getting (1) BF3 Razer Blackwidow Ultimate Keyboard! Watch the video for yourself.

Contest #2 – Artwork / Screenshot Competition

We sent out a call to artists to put together a Battlefield 3 related art piece. After narrowing it down to three submissions, we let our users decide who would get number #1. Here’s the submission that one and they’ll be receiving (1) Battlefield 3 Razer Imperator Mouse and (1) Razer Scarab Mouse pad

You can even see how Puddle put this together!

Contest #3 – Rockets n’ Razors

Last but not least we had a special Knife / Rocket only event. For days, players duked it out on our servers to get first place. In total we had 1,573 Players participating in this challenge with a total of 7,872 Kills with Rocket Launchers and Knives. JuutoZ managed to get first place with a total of 738 kills. He’ll be taking home (1) BF3 Razer Messenger Bag and (1) Copy of BF3 Limited Edition PC (For a future knife victim).  Huge thanks to 1April from BF3Stats (P-Stats.com) who put together a script so that we could track this contest!

Thanks to everyone who participated in this event. Until next time soldiers!

“I want returning players to get the sense that these are cool new maps, and then suddenly realize they know them by heart. The feeling should be new, but the actual map layout the same as before. For newcomers, these are simply four brilliant maps,” said Fegraeus of the design ethos adopted for the development of Back to Karkand, which (as you all should know by now) features four classic BF2 maps reimagined in all the destructible glory of the Frostbite 2 engine: Gulf of Oman, Sharqi Peninsula, the legendary Wake Island, and of course the eponymous Strike at Karkand.

The idea, according to the blog post, is that some span of years has passed since players last visited these four maps in BF2 – a conference center has been erected near the airstrip in Wake Island, some of the construction sites in the BF2 version of Gulf of Oman are now completed buildings, etc.  Except now, of course, it’s all fully destructible.  Click here to read the full post.

You can also check out some recent Battlefieldo articles showing the official Back to Karkand trailer and some other gameplay footage.  DICE community manager Daniel “zh1nt0″ Matros also recently visited our TeamSpeak 3 server (join us and chat anytime: 213.133.97.214) and was kind enough to do a Karkand Q&A with our community.

Back to Karkand comes out this December and will retail for $14.99 MSRP for all three platforms, but will be free for owners of the Battlefield 3 Limited Edition (preorders).  Playstation 3 players will get exclusive access to the expansion pack a week earlier than PC and Xbox players.

I’m proud to announce the expansion of the “Community Spotlight” section of our community into what will become a daily segment for us, its called “DO IT LIVE”. The spotlight can be oh so bright sometimes… especially the spotlight of the worlds largest online BF3 community (yea… that’s us). So far.. it seems like our “Articles” section in community spotlight is lacking, while the Videos & Artworkis thriving! I’d love to see you guys putting more content out on the community spotlight, because starting tomorrow I will be picking videos, articles, and artwork out of our spotlight section to highlight on our newest installment “DO IT LIVE!” and give you the Battlefieldo Spotlight you so clearly deserve!

Perks:

We’re going to tweet your content

We’re going to Post it on Facebook

We’re posting it on our “News” homepage

You get max Battlefieldo exposure, and mad street cred.

Profit?

Can’t wait to start giving you guys the audience and attention you deserve! See you on the spotlight!

@PR3SIDENT_

The European Based Gaming league, ESL have announced that they are launching a Battlefield 3 Tournament for 10,000 Euros! The tournament will consist of 4v4 Squad Rush matches with a cap at 64 teams able to register. It operates on a first come first serve basis, so be sure to head over to their page and signup as soon as you can to ensure a spot in the tournament.  The tournament is divided into a series of cups with the first one happening this Sunday, November 13th, 2011.

These cups will happen every week until January. So what are you waiting for? If you’ve got a team or a group of 3 friends who want to play some competition, go ahead and visit the ESL Go4BF3 Announcement for more information.

The European Based Gaming league, ESL have announced that they are launching a Battlefield 3 Tournament for 10,000 Euros! The tournament will consist of 4v4 Squad Rush matches with a cap at 64 teams able to register. It operates on a first come first serve basis, so be sure to head over to their page and signup as soon as you can to ensure a spot in the tournament.  The tournament is divided into a series of cups with the first one happening this Sunday, November 13th, 2011.

These cups will happen every week until January. So what are you waiting for? If you’ve got a team or a group of 3 friends who want to play some competition, go ahead and visit the ESL Go4BF3 Announcement for more information.

For those of you guys who haven’t had a chance to meet Cookie, you’re seriously missing out. Cookie is one of the funniest most personable members of our Battlefieldo community. He cracks me the hell up all the time, and has this personality that just makes you enjoy being around him. I’m pleased to announced that Cookie will today be brought on board as our first official ”Clan Recruiter/Welcomer”. In this new role he will assist Grizzle and myself with the recruits, trialists, and driving membership to the clan. Please congradulate him when you see him.

Bio

Cookie, aka Michael, comes from Belgium. He’s still a student and is currently in his final year of High School. He has plans to study IT after High School at university and achieve a Master in Networking Management and Distribution. He keeps him busy with school with his final essay about Cloud Computing and loads of other work. Once a week he goes to MusicSchoolas well (he’s in his final year of it). He has a nice Keyboard to play on, for the experts a Yamaha PSR-1500.

Cookie fell in love with FPS Games from the beginning. The same counts for PC-Gaming. Consoles were never his thing. The first real game he had was Call Of Duty 2, a clean and simple World War 2 Shooter. He signed up with at a non professional clan and made a few good friends up there, but he never got into Call of Duty that much afterwards. He did buy “Black Cocks” to give it another try, but soon realized only the Zombie Mode was descent enough. He also played a few Age Of Empires’ and some Half Life 2 based Mods. After a while he discovered Battlefield, Bad Company 2. Instantly he left Call of Duty buried in dust. As he was searching for updates about Battlefield and the upcoming, he stumbled upon Battlefieldo and signed up.

“Instantly I knew that this was the place I was searching for. 
Quality and Mature are keywords that are present up here. ”

Although Cookie doesn’t have the best rig, he still manages to get pretty descent gameplay… He has an AMD Athlon X4 620 Processor @ 2.60Ghz, A Nvidia Gefore GTX 460 1Gig and a  650 Watt Power supply

He takes life easy, and enjoys some peace and quiet once and a while. One of his favorite quotes is: “We think too much and feel too little”.

Interview:

What were your thoughts on the BETA? And now, with the final being published for about 3 weeks, were you impressed or disappointed with the final build looking back?

 Before the BETA even was released, I was already stunned by the graphic quality of the game. I was excited what the new Frostbite 2.0 engine had to offer. The BETA just confirmed my expectations. Although some complained about game play issues, I didn’t have any problems with it because I didn’t want to complain about the details as it was a BETA. Now the final game has been released I’m just enjoying it even more. I do expect more from the game as its final built, but I’m sure DICE will bring up the updates to fix the bugs as quick as possible. I am stunned… From the beginning ’till the end.

What is your favorite class? Favorite weapon loadout?

My favorite class is Assault. I love the M16A3 with a red dot on it. It’s also a good looking weapon and shoots pretty accurate in my opinion. I’m getting into the support as well with an M249, but that’s when I’m playing as a Russian, ’cause I don’t have the ability to choose the M16A3 then x)

You’re most memorable moment in Battlefield 3 thus far?

I don’t really have my most memorable moment. I like it every single time I play the game. There might be some more memorable moments, but I think they will be there when we start playing BF3 on a tactical, advanced, strategic way. Then I might get some memorable moments (of epic-ness).

Rush vs Conquest? Offensive play style or defensive play style?
I like them both. It depends from time to time which one I’d like to play. Rush is a game I’ve been playing less, but still amuses me a lot. Conquest is a classic one that never gets bored. Lately I’m getting into TDM mode. I’m having this eager to just walk around and practice my shooting. – Some Quick Action. I’m mostly the defensive guy, but try get bypass the enemies and get all of a sudden offensive and pwn them from behind. I’m proud when that plan succeeds  (which is not that often x] )

How long have you been a die-hard Battlefield fan?

I’m not a die-hard Battlefield Fan actually, although Battlefield convinced me quite quick. The first Battlefield I bought was Bad Company 2. Enjoyed it every single time! One of the best games ever back then.

If I was going to give you a copy of Modern Warfare 3 for free, would you play it?
I might play it, just to check it out. I won’t be too amused with it though. After a few days I would just swap back to Battlefield 3. In my opinion Call of Duty has gone the wrong way in innovative FPS Gaming. It’s time for them to notice what DICE pulled off and what they’re up against.

You’re one of our top forum posters, what do you love the most about the Battlefieldo community?

What I love most about Battlefieldo is that there are much space for a good laugh and some jokes, but also can become serious when needed. A good example was the first Clan Meeting. Everyone jokes around in Team Speak, but when it comes to discussing serious matters, we all change in a way to be the most productive community out there. Battlefieldo is built upon a good team that has the abilities to keep a community running. That’s what I admire the most.

Thanks to Cookie for his time and hardwork he puts into being an active contributing member of our community.

For those of you guys who haven’t had a chance to meet Cookie, you’re seriously missing out. Cookie is one of the funniest most personable members of our Battlefieldo community. He cracks me the hell up all the time, and has this personality that just makes you enjoy being around him. I’m pleased to announced that Cookie will today be brought on board as our first official ”Clan Recruiter/Welcomer”. In this new role he will assist Grizzle and myself with the recruits, trialists, and driving membership to the clan. Please congradulate him when you see him.

Bio

Cookie, aka Michael, comes from Belgium. He’s still a student and is currently in his final year of High School. He has plans to study IT after High School at university and achieve a Master in Networking Management and Distribution. He keeps him busy with school with his final essay about Cloud Computing and loads of other work. Once a week he goes to MusicSchoolas well (he’s in his final year of it). He has a nice Keyboard to play on, for the experts a Yamaha PSR-1500.

Cookie fell in love with FPS Games from the beginning. The same counts for PC-Gaming. Consoles were never his thing. The first real game he had was Call Of Duty 2, a clean and simple World War 2 Shooter. He signed up with at a non professional clan and made a few good friends up there, but he never got into Call of Duty that much afterwards. He did buy “Black Cocks” to give it another try, but soon realized only the Zombie Mode was descent enough. He also played a few Age Of Empires’ and some Half Life 2 based Mods. After a while he discovered Battlefield, Bad Company 2. Instantly he left Call of Duty buried in dust. As he was searching for updates about Battlefield and the upcoming, he stumbled upon Battlefieldo and signed up.

“Instantly I knew that this was the place I was searching for. 
Quality and Mature are keywords that are present up here. ”

Although Cookie doesn’t have the best rig, he still manages to get pretty descent gameplay… He has an AMD Athlon X4 620 Processor @ 2.60Ghz, A Nvidia Gefore GTX 460 1Gig and a  650 Watt Power supply

He takes life easy, and enjoys some peace and quiet once and a while. One of his favorite quotes is: “We think too much and feel too little”.

Interview:

What were your thoughts on the BETA? And now, with the final being published for about 3 weeks, were you impressed or disappointed with the final build looking back?

 Before the BETA even was released, I was already stunned by the graphic quality of the game. I was excited what the new Frostbite 2.0 engine had to offer. The BETA just confirmed my expectations. Although some complained about game play issues, I didn’t have any problems with it because I didn’t want to complain about the details as it was a BETA. Now the final game has been released I’m just enjoying it even more. I do expect more from the game as its final built, but I’m sure DICE will bring up the updates to fix the bugs as quick as possible. I am stunned… From the beginning ’till the end.

What is your favorite class? Favorite weapon loadout?

My favorite class is Assault. I love the M16A3 with a red dot on it. It’s also a good looking weapon and shoots pretty accurate in my opinion. I’m getting into the support as well with an M249, but that’s when I’m playing as a Russian, ’cause I don’t have the ability to choose the M16A3 then x)

You’re most memorable moment in Battlefield 3 thus far?

I don’t really have my most memorable moment. I like it every single time I play the game. There might be some more memorable moments, but I think they will be there when we start playing BF3 on a tactical, advanced, strategic way. Then I might get some memorable moments (of epic-ness).

Rush vs Conquest? Offensive play style or defensive play style?
I like them both. It depends from time to time which one I’d like to play. Rush is a game I’ve been playing less, but still amuses me a lot. Conquest is a classic one that never gets bored. Lately I’m getting into TDM mode. I’m having this eager to just walk around and practice my shooting. – Some Quick Action. I’m mostly the defensive guy, but try get bypass the enemies and get all of a sudden offensive and pwn them from behind. I’m proud when that plan succeeds  (which is not that often x] )

How long have you been a die-hard Battlefield fan?

I’m not a die-hard Battlefield Fan actually, although Battlefield convinced me quite quick. The first Battlefield I bought was Bad Company 2. Enjoyed it every single time! One of the best games ever back then.

If I was going to give you a copy of Modern Warfare 3 for free, would you play it?
I might play it, just to check it out. I won’t be too amused with it though. After a few days I would just swap back to Battlefield 3. In my opinion Call of Duty has gone the wrong way in innovative FPS Gaming. It’s time for them to notice what DICE pulled off and what they’re up against.

You’re one of our top forum posters, what do you love the most about the Battlefieldo community?

What I love most about Battlefieldo is that there are much space for a good laugh and some jokes, but also can become serious when needed. A good example was the first Clan Meeting. Everyone jokes around in Team Speak, but when it comes to discussing serious matters, we all change in a way to be the most productive community out there. Battlefieldo is built upon a good team that has the abilities to keep a community running. That’s what I admire the most.

Thanks to Cookie for his time and hardwork he puts into being an active contributing member of our community.

Last week we all got to gaze our eyes on the Back to Karkand Gameplay Trailer. Now thanks to Grizzle, Ghost Warrior and other BFO Community Members, we’ve got a trailer analysis to give you the run down of what we can expect to see in this expansion pack!

Before

After

Today it seems as though a few Gaming Media outlets have had the chance to get their hands on a bit of Back to Karkand Expansion pack. Only Strike at Karkand and Gulf of Oman though. During the weekend, we had a chance to speak with zh1nt0 about the features seen in Back to Karkand. He mentioned the destruction would be turned. Looks like in Strike at Karkand and Gulf of Oman the buildings are collapsable.

Almost every building can crumble in Strike at Karkand and Gulf of Oman - IGN

Battlefield 3′s first expansion isn’t just about the maps; in fact, one of its best aspects is the addition of Conquest Assault. Conquest Assault popped up in Battlefield 2142, but for those unfamiliar with the game-type, it’s a fast-paced variation of assault where one team rushes to take back a map’s worth of capture points. Matches move rapidly because assaulting teams hold no capture points.

Among all the articles that have popped up, some new gameplay has also emerged thanks to Gamespot showcasing Strike at Karkand and Gulf of Oman on the Playstation 3.

Strike at Karkand Footage

Gulf of Oman Footage

Thanks to Scott from Planet-BF for the headsup!

Ever wondered exactly what the SOFLAM does in Battlefield 3? Our very own luetin gives a very in depth description of what makes this unlock the most underused thing on the Battlefield. When used in combination of a team of Javelin’s you can reign havoc on unsuspecting helicopters and tanks. Watch this video to see exactly why this thing is a beast!

Read how to change your Platoon Emblem to a custom Image here:

Userscripts.org – Battlelog Platoon Emblem Script

NOVEMBER 11TH – 13TH
Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand Digital Expansion Brings More Explosive Action to the Battlefield in December

Guildford, UK. – November 7, 2011 – Get ready to level up, soldier! Today DICE, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio announced that it is thanking fans for their passion and loyalty by hosting a Battlefield 3™“Says Thanks” Sweepstakes weekend where gamers who play from Friday, November 11th at 12:01am GMT through Sunday, November 13th at 11:59pm GMT will have a chance to win one of three amazing prizes. The Grand Prize is a round-trip visit to DICE in Stockholm, Sweden for one player and three of their squadmates for three nights. Included in the visit is a tour of the state-of-the-art studio and an introduction to the development team behind the award-winning game. The second prize is $5,000 USD in cash, or equivalent local currency, with the third place winner taking home a brand new game system with the full catalogue of corresponding Battlefield games. Complete sweepstakes rules can be found at www.battlefield.com/saysthanks.

The November play sessions will be followed in December with even more fan engagement when Battlefield 3 releases the first digital expansion pack, Back to Karkand. This expansion comes with the Limited Edition of the game and delivers four fully remastered Battlefield maps; Strike at Karkand, Wake Island, Gulf of Oman and Sharqi Peninsula, all with enhanced levels of destruction. In addition, this expansion pack includes five new dog tags, five new achievements/trophies, three new vehicles (DPV, BTR-90, F-35B STOVL jet fighter), 10 iconic Battlefield weapons and a new persistence system where players complete assignments to earn their rewards. Back to Karkand will be sold separately for £11.99 or 1200 MS points on the PlayStation®Network and Xbox LIVE® Marketplace, respectively. The expansion pack is available now for PC pre-order on Origin.com.

As DICE continues to support Battlefield 3 as a software service, the development team has been collecting player feedback, responding to issues and working non-stop to provide improvements to both the single player and multiplayer campaigns. Updates include improved Quickmatch and squad functionality, improved game stability, reduced lag and rubber-banding, and added hardcore servers to meet demand. Details of ongoing updates can be found on the Battlefield blog at http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/.

Battlefield 3 is available now in North America and Europe for the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC. Battlefield 3 is rated “M” for Mature by the ESRB. Fans of the game and DICE can purchase merchandise online at the all-new DICE store at www.store.dice.se. For more information on Battlefield 3, please visit www.battlefield.com, and for the latest news on Battlefield please visit http://www.facebook.com/battlefield or follow us on Twitter® at www.twitter.com/battlefield.

About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The Company’s game franchises are offered as both packaged goods products and online services delivered through Internet-connected consoles, personal computers, mobile phones and tablets. EA has more than 100 million registered players and operates in 75 countries.

In fiscal 2011, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.6 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is recognized for critically acclaimed, high-quality blockbuster franchises such as The Sims™, Madden NFL, FIFA Soccer, Need for Speed™, Battlefield, and Mass Effect™. More information about EA is available at www.eagames.co.uk/press.

The Sims and Need for Speed are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. Battlefield 3 and Frostbite are trademarks of EA Digital Illusions CE AB. PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Xbox and Xbox 360 are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. Twitter is a registered trademark of Twitter, Inc. Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Today during our Day 1 event, Daniel “zh1nt0″ Matros volunteered his Saturday Night to come onboard our Teamspeak 3 server to give a quick Q/A about Back to Karkand and score some frags on the Battlefield. We were pretty stoked about this and some great new information came out about the Upcoming Battlefield 3 expansion pack, Back to Karkand. We had a exciting day and we want to give a huge shoutout to Crash7800, 1April, zh1nt0, Elxx, Gamm4 for their help. Here are the highlights of the discussion of what we can expect to see in Back to Karkand.

Unlocks carried over to Vanilla BF3

All the weapons that you unlock while playing Back to Karkand expansion pack will be usable when playing Battlefield 3.

Introducing Assignments

WIth Back to Karkand will come a new feature called “Assignments”. These will essentially be objective based tasks you can accept and will gain rewards from it.

Enhanced Destruction

The Destruction will be turned up a new level in Back to karkand.

Maps with BF2 Flag Structure

The levels in Back to Karkand will bring back the traditional Conquest Assault Gameplay. What this means is one team will start off with most of the flags, and the other team will have to capture those. This is the traditional map format we saw in Battlefield 2.

Karkand stats contribute to global stats

Everything you earn in Karkand will be contributed towards your soldier’s global score.

All game modes available

You’ll be able to play all gamemodes on back to Karkand maps. That means Rush on Wake Island, oh lala!

December 2011 Release

A specific date has yet to be released but it’s right around the corner!

As the first part to our Community Week Event, we’ve got a special Surprise! Thanks to Razer, i3D.net and BF3Stats.com, we bring you a exclusive ROCKETS N’ RAZORS Battlefield 3 PC Event for this weekend only. We’ll have our Battlefieldo.com Servers marked with ROCKETS N’ RAZORS. These are custom servers that will ONLY allow you to kill a enemy with either a Knife or Rocket Launcher!

Now here’s the good part. Thanks to BF3Stats.com, We’re going to keep track of who has the most Knife / Rockets killed combined on our servers. At the end of our Community week, the 1st Place winner will receive (1) BF3 Razer Messenger Bag and (1) Copy of BF3 Limited Edition PC (for your friend!) . Remember that your stats will only be counted on our BF3 Server that are marked with ROCKETS N’ RAZORS in the name!

Servers

#1 BATTLEFIELDO.com ROCKETS N’ RAZORS

We’ll begin tracking your Stats on November 4th at 7pm CET – 1pm EST

KNIFE / ROCKET LEADERBOARD

1st Place by November 9th, 1:00AM GMT Wins

BF3 Stats data powered by BF3Stats.com

If you’d like a chance at winning other BF3 Razer prizes, see our other contests going on throughout the week.

Today we are going to be kicking things off with a stream on our Battlefieldo Twitch.tv Channel. We’ll have special guest, Ian “Crash7800″ Tournay, EA’s Battlefield 3 Community Manager to talk about the game. The stream will start at 6:00PM EST (GMT-5) / 3:00PM PST (GMT-8). Come on out and support the Battlefield 3 Community!

Today, a large update to BF3CC Server tool has been released featuring a wide spectrum of updates. With BF3CC installed, you will be prompted to update upon restart of the application.  If you have yet to get your hands on BF3cc, you can do so by visiting the BF3CC website. It’s great to see an update released so fast with only a week after initial release. Join the community of BF3CC users and add your feedback for future versions!

v0.3 Alpha Change List

Known issues:

• cannot change crosshair/punkbuster on config.
• move player numbers aren’t always accurate
• very busy servers may lose their playerlist’s right-click menu, may need to reconnect to regain

Quick Connect

• fixed issue with passwords
• added rule to password on Quick Connect to ensure one is entered

Server Manager

• added validation so you enter proper data

New Features

• Export chat log (right click in chat box)
• Copy indidivual or multiple messages from chat box (ctrl / shift + click to select, then right-click to copy)
• Copy log messages to clipboard in LOG
• Oh yes, we added a log viewer

Chat

• Added events to chat log to view deaths, joins, leaves, and commands executed in BF3CC

Main

• Added changelog accessible from Help menu

Players

• Fixed issue with playerlist sorting getting destroyed occasionally
• Fixed issue causing inaccurate playerlist

Config

• added presets. Select one and fields with highlighted indicators must be static to conform to that preset. Will automatically select the right preset for you
• added help tips next to labels that look like a question mark. Hover over for details.
• added busy/saved indicators so you know if fields are saving or successfully saved
  NOTE: currently all fields are saved regardless of change, we are working to fix the core issue resulting in this requirement

• share (import/export) team killing rules. It’s hard to get these right so you can easily share with others if you find a nice setup
• copy generated server vars to clipboard. Paste these into your startup.txt for persistence
• export an actual startup.txt for safe keeping

Bans

• fixed issue with refreshing list
• filter by token and reason, just start typing.

Log

• execute server commands directly on the server. You must know the server commands, so find the server documentation for how to use them.

Backend

• major overhaul on server connection to increase response
• fixed several bugs in connection to server
• updated protocol for several commands
• fixed bugs in some commands
• added events handle in several controllers
• added log controller, for logging of all communication between server and CC
• Added initial code for Plugin
• overhaul on Playerlist, fixes several sync issues

Back to Karkand is a DLC pack for BF3 that features reimagined Frostbite 2 versions of classic Battlefield 2 maps, vehicles, and weapons.  Featured in the trailer are the ultra-popular BF2 maps Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, Sharqi Peninsula and the legendary Wake Island.

Back to Karkand comes out for all platforms in December, just in time for the holidays, and will retailed for $14.99 USD. If you pre-ordered the Battlefield 3 Limited Edition you will receive Back to Karkand free of charge once it’s released.

Just two weeks after the launch of Battlefield 3, there has already been some server updates and today, a new patch for Battlelog. You’ll notice at the bottom of your battlelog on PC that you’ll have to update the web plugin in the game manager. New options have been added as per request of the community such as a more enhanced Server Browser, Punkbuster checks, and other nice fixes. Here is the complete Change list. It’s great to see enhancements to the system so soon after release.

Change list

Watch the Trailer, redeem your Codes here

A new server fix has been deployed on Battlefield 3 PC Servers and is now going on to Playstation 3 / Xbox 360. This server patch, other wise known as Server Patch R7 fixes a lot of Rubberbanding, crash and lag related issues. We’ve tested it out and it does indeed seem like a huge difference compared to the patch before! Goes to show that DICE are working hard to get the release kinks ironed out.

SERVER PATCH R7 NOTES

This is a server patch which means that you don´t have to update anything on your client.

Ever wanted to know exactly what the Air Radar unlocks for the jets? Here is our guide on exactly what the Air Radar unlock grants you. Know how to use it so you can use it to your best advantage on the battlefield. We’ll be posting episode 2 on our youtube channel in the near future. Stay tuned

Now that Battlefield 3 has hit the world by force, it’s time to kick in this new game with a week-long community event. This is your chance to come on out, play with the Battlefield Community and have a chance at winning some prizes! We’ve teamed up with Razer this time around and, we’ll be giving away their Battlefield 3 Collector’s Gear! Be sure to like Razer on Facebook. All you have to do is participate for a chance to win.

So how do you participate in the event? Well, first tune into our Battlefieldo Twitch.tv channel for our stream (+ Special Guests) to kicks things off on Friday, November 4th at 11:00PM EST / 8:00PM PST. Through the course of the week, we will have public BF3 servers open for fragging courtesy of i3D.net. Expect to get some community dogtags! In order for a chance to win some gear, we will be picking winners from a series of contests as well as giveaways via our twitter / facebook / forums.

Contest #1 – Video  Competition

Make your best Battlefield 3 video and the top 3 submissions will be shown on our stream, letting the viewers vote what’s best. All submissions are due Monday, November 7th, 2011.1st Place will win (1) BF3 Razer Blackwidow Ultimate Keyboard!
See this thread for more information

Contest #2 – Artwork / Screenshot Competition

Do you have a knack for making BF3 artwork or a idea for an amazing screenshot? Submit your entries and we’ll select a winner! All submissions are due Tuesday, November 8th, 2011. (1) Battlefield 3 Razer Imperator Mouse and (1) Razer Scarab Mouse pad
See this thread for more information

Giveaways

Through the course of the event, we will be doing give aways on our Facebook, Twitter and on the BF3 Servers. We’ve got a Razer BF3 Messenger Bag + BF3 Iphone Case to giveaway! Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter and Fan our Battlelog Platoon to keep in the loop.

This is going to be an off the hook week of Battlefield 3. This event will be for all Battlefield 3 platforms, PC, Xbox360 and PS3.

Server List

Teamspeak 3: 213.133.97.214

Battlefield 3 Servers: Details added shortly

Community Spotlight: SamFisher

For those of you who haven’t had a chance to mingle and meet a lot of Battlefieldo’ers SamFisher is definitely one of the coolest cats I know.

Here’s a little about Sam,

He’s been game since he was 5 back in the early 80′s. Started on a Commodore Vic20 playing games and doing basic programming. Moved on to a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k (yes 48k) and hasn’t stopped since. He has a sick-nasty rig currently running: an I7-920 @4ghz, Noctua D14 with a single EVGA GTX560ti. He plans to upgrade to another 560ti at some point in the next month or so… He also just bought a Razer Black Widow Ultimate keyboard, which whilst being very expensive is one hell of a mechanical gaming keyboard. Sam stays kind of busy with work and his 3 kids, and is currently working for a large food retailer in the UK which keeps him in a reasonable apartment and allows him to upgrade his PC when he can. He’s just joined the SAS squad in the BFO community and very glad to see they have 16 members in the squad already. Elite is the squad Captain and is a very funny guy and they are looking forward to some great matches once BF3 releases soon.

When did you start gaming?

I started gaming when I was about 5 years old in the 80s (yes I’m old lol) on a Commodore Vic20. The games were incredibly basic and really not that fun. I then moved onto a Sinclair Spectrum 48k (lol 48k) and the games then were really getting better development and much more fun. I’ve been PC gaming for about 15 years now and had many rigs.

What game or experience really pulled you in?

This is quite hard to remember but what really pulled me into PC gaming was Doom. The way graphics are these days and the way we can communicate with TS etc. really makes PC’s the way to play until the next generation of consoles come out. Even then I’d still prefer to play on PC tbh.

Most embarrassing online moment?

OMG my most embarrassing moment happens very frequently when I’m in TS and forgets to press push to talk and realize I’m just talking to myself. Auto activation FTW. I’m sure we’ve all done it

Run and Gun? Sit and Shoot?

Definitely run and gun all the way I’m no good at sniping, but often I’ll be a bit more tactical about approaching situations instead of just running in guns blazing.

Favorite Class/Weapon from the Battlefield series so far?

In the beta I think my favorite class was assault because I wanted to use the medic kit a bit more since I never really used that before. I think I’ll be rolling with my engineer kit a lot as well as I love my flying and vehicles.

Hobbies outside of the game?

My main hobby outside of the game would be upgrading and tweaking my PC. I love the whole process of ordering parts and building a rig from scratch. But sometimes I like to take a break from all things technology and just enjoy my time with my friends and family.

What do you want to achieve from Battlefield 3?

My main goal in BF3 is to work on all my kits starting with engineer, assault, support and then sniper. I want to get all the unlocks for everything and fine tune my skills in both vehicles and my infantry play. Also the biggest thing for me is too have lots and fun and enjoy my time with my friends in TS.

Big thanks to Sam for all his help to me personally as well as to Battlefieldo and the community we are building. Couldn’t have done it without great members and supporters as yourself.

In other news, today there was a new entry on the Official Battlefield blog thanking everyone for the extensive amount of feedback on the Launch of Battlefield 3. DICE’s General Manager, KM Troedsson gives some great insight into how the feedback has been taken into effect. Here is a short excerpt:

Hi all! This is Karl Magnus Troedsson with an update on the Battlefield 3 launch. It has been an amazing first week for all of us at DICE. It’s incredibly exciting to ship Battlefield 3 globally, and to hear the feedback from our fans.

 

 

This has been our largest launch to date! Thank you all for turning out in record numbers at midnight launches across the globe. It’s great to know you’re all as excited to play Battlefield 3 as we are. Even so, the overwhelming response has been as humbling as it is appreciated. Battlefield 3 is the fastest selling game in EA’s history, but is not without its ups and downs.

 

You make the game come alive
Everyone at DICE has put their heart and soul into Battlefield 3. We take an incredible amount of pride in what we’ve built. Many of us were Battlefield players even before we became developers on Battlefield 3. So we take great pride in the positive feedback and revel in the Battlefield moments captured by the community. Here is just one of the thousands of awesome fan videos that are popping up everywhere, showing us what Battlefield is all about:
Mid-air helicopter pick-up

 

Key issues and how we are fixing them
Despite the fact that millions of people are online playing Battlefield 3, some of you are experiencing issues. The DICE team, as well as the many EA groups that support this historic launch, have all been working around the clock. We’ve deployed a number of server-side updates in our first week that have solved a number of the primary connectivity challenges, and have accelerated our rollout of the number of Hardcore servers. Below is an update on five key issues for us and how we are addressing them.

 

Last week Battlefield 3 had a epic launch around the world. With the amount of people logging online, like most video game releases, it was expected that there would be network performance issues. The good news is that DICE have released an official announcement on the server issues and will be updating the Battlefield 3 servers to resolve these issues.

Hello everyone! It´s sunday night over here at the office. It´s cold and dark outside but inside one of the nicest buildings located in the heart of Stockholm, sits a team that is working on updates. We at DICE are rolling out a new server update and of course, we are posting the change log to you.For users, this means that you don´t need to update your client since this is a server side update.

- Fix for crashes usually occurring during level switches. Server providers may see a little bit of memory leakage instead in this situation- Game servers should no longer quit in some situations where the online backend servers are down. Server will reconnect to the backend once it’s up again

- Fix for ghost servers which didn’t accept connections

- Kick reasons should better match situations where they are issued. This will help battlelog provide more accurate information to the player

- Connection fixes to avoid players sometimes being rejected while joining the game server on one of the last slots

- Security updates

- Improved server logging

via Battlelog 

Visit BF3cc.com

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Many players on the PC version of Battlefield 3 have been experiencing disconnecting problems. Don’t worry, it’s due to some punkbuster update issues. Please follow this information and you’re problem should get resolve

If you have been receiving the “You have been kicked by the Administator” message while playing Battlefield 3 you may need to manually update your Punkbuster installation.
First, download PBSetup from here: http://battlelog-cdn.battlefield.com/public/pbsetup.exe [battlelog-cdn.battlefield.com]
When you start PBSetup, you will be presented with EvenBalance’s license agreement. Accept the agreement to proceed.
The utility will then download information about the latest PunkBuster version for BF3. Once this is complete, you are presented with a list of the PunkBuster-enabled games that are present on your systems.

If Battlefield 3 is not in that list, you can add it:
- Click on “Add a Game”
- In the top dropdown box, choose “Battlefield 3″
- Click on “Add Game”
- You should now have Battlefield 3 in the list of PunkBuster-enabled games.

Finally update the PunkBuster DLLs. Click on Battlefield 3, and choose “Check for Updates”. PBsetup will check if the DLLs are up-to-date; if not, the latest DLLs will be downloaded and installed.At this point PunkBuster is fully up to date and configured for Battlefield 3.

If you’re problem still persists, go to the battlefield 3 page on Punkbuster and Manually update the files.

In only 3 days of Battlefield 3 being released, it has already sold a record breaking 10 million copies. 3 Million of these being pre-orders. Electronic Art’s CEO, John Riccitiello already reported today that many vendors are already requesting re-orders. Still there are parts of the world for Battlefield 3 to be released. On top of that, it seems as though it has set a record for the best day one sales in the history of Electronic Arts.

Biggest day one shipment the company has ever done, maybe double what we did on Medal of Honor.
- COO Peter Moore, Electronic Arts

It’s great to see Battlefield 3 doing so well on the market right now. It’ll be interesting to see how many units will sell in the weeks to come.  

Our very own, King0rism got to mess around in a custom Battlefield server with all unlocks enabled. Here you can see the Mortar at use and it sure does pack a punch. As well’ we’ve got videos of the series of camouflage patterns you can unlock in Battlefield 3. From what we’ve played so far, you gain access to different player uniforms within the first 10 ranks of the game. We’ll have more videos coming soon.

Following are a handful of snippets from some of the more high-profile reviews so far:

IGN: “When you shut down Battlefield 3 and let the Frostbite 2-powered dust settle, it certainly has some problems. But DICE’s adoration of and expertise with the online experience permeates every aspect of its multiplayer. Regardless of the narrative missteps or the occasional glitches, Battlefield 3 offers an unforgettable, world-class multiplayer suite that’s sure to excite shooter fans, whether they fired their first bullet in Battlefield 1942 or have just now heeded Battlefield’s call of duty.”
Final score: 9.0  (read the full review)

Joystiq: “But when DICE is doing what it’s always done best, Battlefield 3 is a uniquely mesmerizing multiplayer game with a seemingly endless number of ways to feel like a success. It’s not revolutionary, but it’s the best Battlefield game, and that’s saying a lot..”
Final score: 4.5 stars  (read the full review)

1UP: “Battlefield 3 is a game that’s informed, not bound, by both its predecessors and its competition. It takes what made the series great in earlier games and marries it to the innovations from more recent BF titles. The single-player and co-op campaigns both have their issues, but the multiplayer component is worth the price of entry alone. “
Final score: A-  (read the full review)

GameInformer: “Battlefield fans hoping for the most polished entry in the series won’t be disappointed by this massive sequel. Multiplayer maintains the high level of quality DICE is known for, and the campaign is the best in franchise history. Outside of the annoying Battlelog and a tacked-on, uninspired co-op mode consisting of six short standalone missions, the only downside to Battlefield 3 is the lack of substantial changes to the multiplayer formula. However, that shouldn’t stop longtime fans and newcomers from enjoying one of the best FPS experiences in gaming.”
Final score: 9.5  (read the full review)

CVG: “Battlefield 3 then, from a campaign perspective, delivers the goods and then some. It’s not perfect, but it’s bloody close… infinitely more impressive than Bad Company 2 and irrefutable proof that DICE have now firmly stepped into the hallowed ranks of the absolute top-tier developers. COD or not, this deserves a place in your collection – not to mention a place in your heart.”
Final score: 9.2 (read the full review)

GameSpy: “For PC gamers at least, the decision by Dice to lead on our beloved platform has resulted in a game that delivers a truly next-generation feel. BF3 is an absolutely massive experience, but it’s the explosive multiplayer mode that makes this the must-have FPS of the year. There’s simply no other shooter that lets you wage war on a scale this huge, but even better is the infinite number of satisfying ways to lay the hurt down on your opponents. See you on the Battlefield.”
Final score: 5 stars (read the full review)

Not half bad!  We’ll put up another article detailing reviews of the console versions of BF3 for Xbox 360 and PS3 once more of them are out.  In the meantime, here are some other reviews of BF3 on PC:

AtomicGamer
GameTrailers
AusGamers
Gamereactor Sweden
Gamereactor Denmark
GameStar
3DJuegos
Eurogamer Spain
Meristation

Today marks the first day Battlefield 3 in launched, although still most won’t be able to play the game until the 28th of October. In the meantime, we thought it’d be good to give you some HD screen shots on Ultra settings from the Multiplayer of Battlefield 3. Thanks to our very own, Jrb, here is what the game looks like on a GTX 590. Enjoy! Stay tuned for more Battlefield content to come this week.

Today marks the first day Battlefield 3 in launched, although still most won’t be able to play the game until the 28th of October. In the meantime, we thought it’d be good to give you some HD screen shots on Ultra settings from the Multiplayer of Battlefield 3. Thanks to our very own, Jrb, here is what the game looks like on a GTX 590. Enjoy! Stay tuned for more Battlefield content to come this week.

Get your Alienware Dogtags here

Thanks to Eldmor on our IRC for the heads up.

In response to the large amount of players using a Korean VPN today to play Battlefield 3 one day early, EA have sent out an email to all those who bought on origin that they can access the game today instead of tomorrow. This is great news and we can’t wait to see the swarm come on the battlefield. Hopefully this will mean that EA will change the release dates for the rest of the world.

This is ONLY for Digital Pre Orders of BF3 

Some people are reporting to not of received the email. If your Regions release was set to be the 25th of October, we encourage you to try starting the game in origin and logging into Battlelog.

Head over to Battlelog to play now!

Fan the Battlefieldo Platoon

It’s official, Battlelog is now online for everyone to join in! Tonight is the release of the Game in North America. Looking forward to seeing everyone on the Battlefield! Be sure to join the Battlefieldo PLATOON. Be sure to add our Battlefieldo staff. Just look for the BFO-NAME for our staff members!

Visit Battlelog Now 

Our friends over at Gamerspawn will be premièring a History to Battlefield video on youtube  tonight at 11 PM GMT+2. It’s great to see a film being released that showcasing the start of the Battlefield series to where we are now. Check out their youtube page later on to check it out. In the meantime, here is the trailer for it!

“The History of Battlefield”. It’s a 45 minute tribute and documentary about DICE and the Battlefield series, as well its unique community. There are plenty of loyal Battlefield fans, but many of them don’t know that the roots lie in Codename Eagle”

Our friends over at Gamerspawn will be premièring a History to Battlefield video on youtube  tonight at 11 PM GMT+2. It’s great to see a film being released that showcasing the start of the Battlefield series to where we are now. Check out their youtube page later on to check it out. In the meantime, here is the trailer for it!

“The History of Battlefield”. It’s a 45 minute tribute and documentary about DICE and the Battlefield series, as well its unique community. There are plenty of loyal Battlefield fans, but many of them don’t know that the roots lie in Codename Eagle”

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